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June 1-15, 2005 Edition

Growth of Religious

Market Spawns

New Imprints

NEW YORK, NY/05/25/05—The Book Industry Study Group’s recent prediction that religious book sales will grow by 50% in the five years ahead confirms why publishers are adding several new religious imprints this year.

Thomas Nelson will launch Nelson Ignite for charismatic Christians and Pentecostals, while Tyndale House will begin its new BarnaBooks in October, and Mandala, publisher of Eastern spirituality titles, has just launched its Earth Aware imprint, designed for a more mainstream Western audience.

Nelson’s Ignite will be headed by John Mason, founder of Insight Publishing Group. Tyndale’s BarnaBooks will mainly be written or co-written by Christian evangelist and pollster George Barna, who has published 35 titles including bestsellers. Earth Aware’s first two titles are Shots: An American Insider’s Journal 1967-1972, featuring photographs by the then-teenaged David Fenton as a stringer for Liberation News Service, and Black Market: Inside the Endangered Species Trade in Asia by Ben Davies.